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didn’t appear to have a problem with or any issues about it, so
my wife and I had talked about it and about two years later we
decided that we would invest.” During the time between 1988 and
petitioners’ investment in early 1991, Mr. Van Scoten spoke to
his father about the Hoyt partnerships on a regular basis. His
father told him that
the partnership involved cattle; in particular, what he
called “Borrow-A-Bull.” That entailed investing money into
the partnership, buying what I presumed was a percentage of
a group of cattle, and from there, after a number of years
or after the initial investment, then we would receive a
return on our investment.
Mr. Van Scoten’s father also told him that he had seen cattle and
“numerous trucks with the Walter J. Hoyt logo and insignia” on
them. Mr. Van Scoten trusted his father’s advice to invest in a
Hoyt partnership because his father had attended partnership
meetings and had seen Hoyt cattle and trucks.2 When giving his
son advice concerning the investment, Edward Van Scoten relied
partially on the information he had received from the Hoyt
organization, and also answered “yes” to his son’s inquiry “does
this makes sense”.
Petitioners first invested in a Hoyt partnership in January
1991.3 At the time that petitioners invested in the partnership,
2While the record is clear that Ms. Van Scoten was an
investor in the Hoyt partnership, because she did not testify at
trial there is no evidence in the record with respect to her
understanding of the investment or her decision to invest.
3Although Mr. Van Scoten testified at trial that “I believe
(continued...)
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